How long would you do a VW camper tour around Australia?

Personally, for Australia I'd look into buying a motorhome, spending 6-12 weeks touring (more if available!), then selling it at the end of the trip. That used to be a cost effective option and I would imagine still is.

For a shorter trip, look carefully at flight times and time zones. I have long had 3 weeks as a personal minimum for UK-Australia trips - ideally 4 weeks minimum. Obviously a bit different if you are stopping on the way though.

We did a week driving around Tasmania for our honeymoon (married in Sydney), with booked self-catering cottages. Could easily have spent longer.

For shorter trips definitely Great Ocean Road is a good idea. Depending on the time of year, and your inclination to share with others, I loved a 2 week tour I did in my 20s from Alice Springs to Darwin, stopping at most of the iconic places en route. My eldest got to the Northern Territory on her gap year but only had a week or so there - the tour she did only covered a subset of the top end (but she still enjoyed it hugely).

If you do end up doing your own driving in Australia, pay attention to advice around equipment, how much water to carry, whether you need to carry spare fuel. Oh and if you are going through quarantine gates (tick gates or fruit and veg).

Oh and I love not having a loo in my van, it means never having to deal with sewage or the smell of a full toilet tank!

VW campers are ace! Especially in a country where it's unlikely to rain all the bloody time.

I have one. Longest trip I've done is 2 weeks round Europe (France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium) and it was brilliant.

VWs are small but they are compact and cleverly organised. You should have a fridge, hob and grill, depending on the conversion. Plus lots of clever cupboard space.

Aussie campsites are excellent - they will have outdoor cooking facilities so you won't need to cook in the van most of the time. They will also have showers etc so you'll be fine there. Washing of clothes - you may well find a lot of campsites have washing and drying facilities (a lot here do) and you'll be able to find a laundromat if you really need one.

I could happily do a month in my camper, if it was just DH and I. It's a bit trickier now when we go away in it and there's us, two kids and a dog!

However - Oz is huge. You will need to factor in a massive amount of driving.

Some other suggestions, it is cheaper if you fly in & out of the same main hub airport eg Singapore, Bangkok. From there you can get reasonably priced flights or trains to many other countries

Bali & some of the smaller islands like Gillis
Komodo
Lombok
Bali

Singapore or Kuala Lumpur
Penang
Langkawi
Thailand Island hopping
Back to S or KL

Bangkok
Chaing Mai
Vietnam/Cambodia
Thailand
Bangkok

I would do Australia alone as one single place to visit

It's really not long enough at all if your trying to fit all them places in.

Sydney to cairns is 2.5 k miles, it's a really long way, and if you have never camped and wouldn't be happy using campsite loos and showers I would rethink to be honest. I've done north NSW up north but not as far as cairns and it felt like miles. It's so vast.

Vietnam/Phillipines/Cambodia will only be one of these countries
that kind of make more sense!

Don't misunderstand me, it's not about jam packed itinerary, it's more about being realistic about distances. You don't "do" Cambodia in one week, it's very enjoyable to spend even a week, but even if you cram as much as you possibly can in one day, even you have a private helicopter to drop you to various places, you are severely limited.

Not even talking about Oz, you know the size of it. If you are planning on a camper tour, you won't have time to do much.

But again, if it's one of the 3 countries, that makes it a bit more realistic. 4 countries in 8 weeks, you will have time to do some bits. Don't forget many people spent months because there's just so much to do.

I have seen lovely American planning a trip to Europe and planning 2 or 3 days in GB, 1 or 2 days in London, 1 day in Scotland. It's very doable but you need to be realistic what it will be like 😂

I have been to some of these countries & have travelled

These countries are expensive
Australia
New Zealand
Japan
Singapore

These countries are cheaper
Vietnam
Cambodia
Thailand
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines

Not been to Seychells yet

Depending on your budget, can you afford both Japan & Australia on this holiday ?

Ensure that you buy travel insurance that includes all the countries that you wish to visit

I would visit less countries & stay longer in each one

Good luck

@Pouche
Waft time of year are you honeymooning ?

I am not sure if you are planning to stay in one place in each location or are intending to keep moving, but, having done a few 'travelling' holidays I would recommend building in a 'stay' period in every 2-3 weeks as being constantly on the move with just a night or two in each location can be tiring. It's lovely to book into a hotel and get your washing sorted and bag properly empty and ready to reset is great and sets you up fo rthe next travel session.

If you are planning on moving about rather than just doing an airport to hotel transfer Seat61 is fantastic for all things train, and for other transport options I always use Rome to Rio and this might give you some alternatives for Australia. Booking.com offers a (room facility) filter to find accommodation with a washing machine.

Japan, can recommend Kyoto, particularly the Gion district (fly into Osaka & take direct train) ryokankyoto.jp

Vietnam, can recommend Hoi An (fly into Da Nang and take a cab.)
Cambodia, can recommend Siem Reap Angkor Wat Village hotel angkorvillagehotel.asia
Philippines, have had Siquijor recommended (local flight & a ferry.)
Oz, can recommend traveling the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to Apollo Bay. You can see the fairy penguins on Phillip Island; think 5 nights best.

6-8 weeks is barely long enough for a couple of countries frankly. It sounds like a box ticking exercise more than an actual holiday.

There's so much to do and see, either you will be rushing desperately or you will barely see anything at all.

It's up to you, but if you must camping, I would prefer camping 2 or 3 nights, than a night or 2 in a hotel then repeat, and finish with a top end hotel. Much easier to put up with camping when it's not for a long stretch of time

2 weeks in a campervan in australia? Brisbane - cairns or Sydney - brisbane.

That is if you find a company that let's you start and stop at different places. I love "juicy" does. But honestly, a car road trip staying at hotels / air bnbs will probably be the same price (petrol will cost a fortune!) and less need to think about spiders, lizards or worse in the van or loos!

Even swapping OZ for the US: that's 6 countries in 6-8 weeks. That's approximately 1 week in each country, not including travel days between each destination. Add 3 completely different time zones into the mix and I can't imagine it's actually all that enjoyable.

Three weeks would be great. Just plan where to travel.
Maybe just Tasmania or select places on the East Coast, or just the Southern part of Western Australia or Cairns up to Cape Tribulation and north of there..
It will be ecconomical and easier up and down hills, parking etc to go for the smallest VW van. We did similar, years ago on our honeymoon in New Zealand.
We hired a small car and had a two man tent, a small bag of cooking pots and two suit cases.
More recently we again hired a small car and toured Uk via caravan parks, Youth Hostels, air B&Bs and some lux homes.

Australia has great camping facilities (kitchens, pools, laundries, bathrooms, firepits etc) in caravan parks like Big 4. It is a large country so you really need to make sure you are not driving every hour. Plan to bush walk, swim, eat, visit tourist and picturesque places for at least half of every day.
Day time trains could be an option between some cities??

You're trying to see six countries in 6-8 weeks? You'll spend a lot of time on the actual travel part between places and you'll barely see much of each country.
For your question of how long to spend in a campervan, it seems like you'll only a week or so available. In which case unless your aim is to experience the camping part of it, you'd be better off picking a couple of your "must see" places in Australia and flying between them.
You'd have a much more valuable travel experience if you cut down your locations. Spend your 6-8 weeks in Japan and Vietnam for example, enjoy getting to see the countries rather than dropping in for a few days. Or perhaps four weeks campervan around part of Australia and then stop at one other country for a week or two on the way back.

Ooh looks like I should find something bigger. I didnt want to have deal with a sewage hose thing

If you have a camper with a toilet in that you're going to use, you'll have to deal with cleaning it out, emptying cassettes etc.

If you're staying on campsites, many people try to restrict use to night-time wees rather than everything but obviously if you're wild camping, that's not possible.

Tbh Sydney to Cairns in two weeks would be a rush. You would be driving pretty much everyday and you wouldn't get to stop and enjoy all the beautiful towns and coastline.
Go to The USA and come to Australia when you have more time.

I was just curious how long would be too much in a camper van?
That's impossible to answer for another person! Can you go camping in the UK for a few nights to decide if you enjoy it? I camped (in a tent though) for 3 months in Australia and it wasn't enough because I loved it. If you hate it then 1 week will be too much.

6-8 weeks is not enough time to go around Australia on its own, let alone with the other countries as well.

If you are staying on paid campsites then they usually have great amenities - they will almost always have washing machines and dryers, so you don't need to worry about that. They usually have cooking facilities too and decent showers, so you are fine with a camper van in that sense.

That seems like an ambitious itinerary for 6-8 weeks. You'll spend lot of it on flights/transit. Australia is vast so I'd concentrate on one/two areas maybe Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula with a few days in Sydney. Or Queensland or Brisbane area,

Depending on the type of vw I would recommend that you complete a course in mechanics and get used to sitting by the side of the road (speaking from experience).